We were up early enough to visit the Badlands National Park before it got too hot or busy. What looked to me like giant stripy sandcastles, being washed away by the tide rise straight up out of the prairie and stretch out in a chain about 40 miles long – an eerie martian landscape. I succumbed again to the miles and miles of roadside signs (the first just after Riverton, 424 miles ago back in Wyoming) and paid a second visit to Wall Drug. I thought long and hard about the spurs, chaps and Stetsons, and most of all, whether I had any male relatives who would appreciate one of those braided leather neck-tie things with a metal clip, but eventually escaped the mad place empty handed. After Wall the roads were long and very straight, moving to a mixture of wheat fields and angus razing. The tiny town of Mount City was a row of 4 clapboard buildings - a post office, a home, a butcher and Bernie's Beefstro. North Dakota continued in the same vein. I practiced my distance judgement (yes, the drive was boring) and measured that on a very straight stretch I could see about 17 miles of road ahead. Minot, our stop fopr the night, was a much bigger town than I expected. It was still very hot when we went for a run but luckily the sprinklers on the verge came on as we were passing and Harry wouldn't carry on until he had rolled on the wet grass and laid with his face right next to the sprinkler head for 5 minutes!Last long drive across the Great Plains tomorrow.RnH